Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Biodegradable Utensil Set Mimics Fruits and Vegetables

Posted: 11 Aug 2013 10:00 AM PDT

Biodegradable Vegetable Utensils 3D Printed

3D-printed using molds of real fruits and vegetables, this set of disposable tableware is entirely biodegradable. Each individual piece of the Graft series by Chinese designer Qiyun Deng is a realistic replica of a carrot, orange peel or celery stalk. Eat your soup with a spoon made from an artichoke, or cut into salad with the blade of a pineapple leaf.

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Deng chose fruits and vegetables with notable physical features that would stand out in plastic form, taking careful molds of their shapes and textures so they could be reproduced by a 3D printer.

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The set is made from a renewable bioplastic, so it doesn’t have the negative environmental impact of typical plastic tableware. Disposable plastic utensils are transformed from crude oil to polystyrene before being used for an average of twenty minutes. Then, they sit in a landfill oozing chemicals like bisphenol-a (BPA) for hundreds of years.

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